Recommendation 25

Two of the missions in the Levelling Up White Paper are ‘overarching’ missions. The first is around living standards and includes measures of productivity, pay and jobs and the second is around measures of well-being.73 With reference to the first, we asked the Department how it intended to measure local productivity. The Department told us it had set out the metrics it intended to use to track progress against the missions in the annexe to the White Paper but acknowledged that while there was regional GDP data, there was very little available below regional level.74 It told us it had: set out a programme of work to improve the quality and timeliness of local data, including data that would make comparisons across the UK’s nations possible; that it was developing a Spatial Data Unit (which the White Paper says will drive the data transformation required in central government); and that it was working closely with the Office of National Statistics to collect statistics that reflect the modern economy.75